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Thrifting

November 22, 2009

About ten days ago I took a trip to Ikea. They have a lot of fun things on offer. I especially liked the Christmas items they had:

The gnome-y picture shows a package of printed paper bags that come in a set of nine. The gnome on top of that is a flat ornament made of felt with a printed paper face. The gnome cone is quite substantial. It could hold candy or nuts and not collapse. The Swedish paper star is two-sided. I've tried once or twice to make these with strips of paper with no luck. I was happy to buy the set of six. Maybe for hanging in windows. The stuffed toys in the other picture are especially cute. I consider myself a seamstress, but it would take me ages to sew little toys like this.

This ornament came out of a battered Shiney Brite box from the thrift store. It looks unremarkable, but it pleases me to no end. It is a WWII era Christmas ornament. It is unsilvered because materials of that nature were all being used for the war effort. The red, white and blue color theme was in keeping with the patriotism of the time. If this little ornament could talk, I'm sure it would have quite a story to tell us.

July 21, 2009

This is really shaping up to be the year without a summer. I did spend a little time outside looking at my garden. I was able to observe a bee going from blossom to blossom with the pollen sacks bulging on her legs. It gave me such a sense of serenity. There really is something to gardening that I didn't understand before. I also sat by the river and re-read a chapter of Animal, Mineral, Miracle. By 10:30 the weather began to deteriorate and I went into the house to work on a project.

Years ago I had tried to do some smocking. I remember seeing throw pillows on the couches of old ladies who were competent with a needle. I couldn't figure out how it was done, but I knew I wanted to learn the technique. I purchased a Dritz Smockruler when I was newly married. I had no luck with it. That ruler was lost somewhere in the hum of the cosmos. On Sunday I went to a church rummage sale and lo, there was was another smockruler waiting to go home with me. Later on Sunday I took my aforementioned trip to Joann Fabrics and bought some pretty red velveteen because I made up my mind to teach myself how to do lattice smocking. And, TA DA!

This is a view of the backside of the work. The blue object is the plastic Dritz Smockruler. I have to say that the technique took a lot of concentration. The ruler is used to mark the fabric with dots and then using a needle with heavy duty thread the dots are gathered together in the proper sequence.

I think I was inspired to work with such lush fabric because I have been looking at the costumes as I finished watching season two of the Tudors on netflix. This is a picture of Dame Judy Dench in her Oscar-winning performance in Shakespeare in Love. Notice her sleeves. It is lattice smocking!

My husband, who is not enamored of British royalty, feels my work closely resembles coffin lining. We actually had a discussion about combining our skills (he is a carpenter) and building coffins for ourselves. The finished caskets could, we reasoned, be used as coffee tables until we need them.

June 14, 2009

This weekend my-favorite-little-boy-in-the-world had his first sleepover with us. A twenty-two month old boy can really keep things hopping. He gave us a good laugh at dinner last night. We had asparagus from the farmer's market. His little portion was cut up and he enjoyed that. When he was done, he reached over to his Papa's plate and picked up the spears on his plate one at a time, nibbled off the tip and put the stalks back on Papa's plate.

He didn't get much coloring done but he really enjoyed dumping the crayons on the floor. He also had a blast with his new T-ball set.

The farmer's market around here is superlative. It's a mix of farmers and hucksters selling all kinds of fabulous produce, plants, sausage and cheese. The strawberries are starting to come in and I have it on good authority that if you are not at the market very early in the morning - no berries for you.

I stopped by three different estate sales yesterday. Slim pickins, let me tell you. I did buy a few things, mostly dishes, but there were no good textiles, sewing equipment or books. Maybe I'm getting too fussy in my old age.

One thing I've been cogitating is buying a Kindle. My daughter has one. My friend Mags has one. They both like them a lot. Here is what gives me pause; I had a palm pilot when it first came out. Then I attended a conference where I was given the next generation palm pilot. I used both of them, even learning the graffiti you needed to use with the little stylus (which was very easy to lose). I tried to become one with the palm pilot with limited luck. I downloaded a book or two on it and didn't completely enjoy reading from the screen. I also think about how many lovely actual books I can have on the shelf for the price of the Kindle plus the downloading costs. One thing which really annoys me is how quickly the devices we buy become obsolete. The final thing which made me decide to hold off was an article in this week's Time magazine. The article stated that more companies will be getting into the e-book device business soon. That ought to bring the prices down and really enhance the range of choices. So, I'll wait for a few months and see what news Christmas brings us.

February 08, 2009

I went to an estate sale in the neighborhood where I grew up. Not much stuff that appealed to me, but we're so estate sale deprived around here, I was drawn to it anyway. I took in a modest haul, my favorite being these Valentines:

I love the sweet images on these cards. A lot of them are flocked which makes them even more wonderful. *rant alert* I've been teaching over twenty years. The good news is that children still love exchanging Valentines. The sad news is that almost each and every card has some sort of media character on it. Kids don't even seem to have the option of sending pretty cards like the ones pictured above. I can't imagine that anyone will be charmed forty years in the future by a Hannah Montana Valentine. And furthermore (the rant continues) in all my time teaching, I've never seen a child come to school with a home made card. *end of rant*

In other news, we took out favorite-little-boy-in-the-world to the Niagara University basketball game. He clapped at all the right places and enjoyed meeting the Purple Eagle mascot.

November 08, 2008

My day started at the City Market in North Tonawanda. A little chilly - everyone's cheeks looked as rosy as the apples that were on offer. And speaking of apples, I bought some Northern Spy apples at a different farmer's market a year ago and they made an unbelievable pie. I remember wanting to taste a Northern Spy since I read the name in a book a long time ago. After I tasted them, I looked for them without any luck. This morning I asked a farmer and he was kind enough to point to the stall of another farmer who was selling Red Spy apples. A chat with the farmer was enlightening. Northern Spy apples, according to her (and she should know) come on a 30-foot tall tree which only yields every other year. Red Spys were developed in Cornell. They are a dwarf tree which bears fruit each year. She said not too many farmers grow them, so I felt like I had really scored. Tomorrow is pie day around here.

I also bought spuds and some squash called "sweet Potato". I had my camera, and as I was snapping a shot of Brussel sprout stalks, the farmer in that booth called out, "Hey! This is what you want a picture of!" And this is the vegetable she was talking about:

It is a Romanesco cauliflower! Have you ever seen such a beautiful thing !???!?!!!!?!?!?!? It is a mathmatical wonder of fractuals and Fibonacci progression. And you can eat it! Naturally I bought one. It will be featured for dinner tomorrow night. Here is a shot of apple alley.

I then made my way to a sale which was described in the classified as "a farmhouse filled with 75 years' accumulation of stuff". Well, "accumulating" evidently did not leave time for general cleaning because the place was d-i-r-t-y ! I was #264 on the sign in sheet, so who knows what was there before I was allowed entrance, but I did find:

Vintage hankies - never used, very, very old embroidery transfer sheets and a set of paper dolls. A little research revealed that the Trudy and Tina paper dolls were from 1967. The child who owned these paper dolls had phenomenal fine motor skills. They are cut out with extreme precision. The outfits are just darling. The other purchase which I made was something which always interests me - vintage craft magazines.

In my opinion, old magazines like this are the closest thing to time travel. These date from 1957 - 1963 and are mostly Christmas issues. I actually squealed when I saw the Betsy McCall paper doll in the December 1961 McCall's magazine!

It was lunchtime, so I drove to Lewiston for the annual Presbyterian Harvest Festival. I picked up my mother who has attended for several years. The ladies that host it have it down to a science. Every single year they serve a cashew chicken luncheon which was nicely presented and very tasty. There were tables with craft items and Christmas decorations. There was a plant table there for good measure. I bought a very healthy-looking aloe plant and a tailor's block and teflon cloth touted as "a traveling ironing pad". I thought I might cut it up and use it to line pot holders.

My final stop on my penny-pinching shopping spree was a thrift shop. I bought myself some ice skates (ice skates for a cheapskate, hahahahah!). I was happy to find a pair for my ginormous feet. My husband and I attend college hockey games and they have a free skate before the matches. I was considering buying some new ones, but this pair looks as though they were just barely used, so I got them. Chance favors the prepared mind!

I also bought some sweaters to make more Betz White mittens. The top one is an L.L.Bean men's XL which felted so nicely. It ended up in a size which fits me, so I'm thinking I might not chop it up. It is soft and thick - might be a nice dog-walking sweater. The other two are cashmere. Cashmere, does not really felt - only fulls slightly. I think the deep red one was donated because of a screwy design. Even before it made a trip through the washer and dryer the neck opening was so small I could just barely get my wrist in it. The tan cashmere is pretty moth-eaten, but it will be swell to line mittens with. One thing I've learned is that a sweater can look intact when you toss it in the wash and come out with dozens of obvious moth holes by the end of the cycle.

I'm hoping to spend some time home tomorrow to clean this humble abode.

September 21, 2008

Local estate sales have been dismal lately. I did pick up a small treasure a couple of weeks ago:

It's a rhinestone sweater guard. It's meant to hold a cardigan in place. The chain can be detached to wear the pins separately. A little glamour from the 1950's to perk up my sad wardrobe. (The plushy red corduroy I used for the background will be used for a project I hope to make tomorrow)

September 08, 2008

Last night during Mad Men (oh how I love that show!) the frugality bug bit. I snipped coupons and referred to the grocery store flier in order to combine offers. Devoted coupon clippers refer to this as "stacking". Anyhoo, today I made a trip to the store and got $109.66 worth of groceries. After my coupns and store sales I paid $67.14. My total savings? $43.83. Oh joy! It would have been even more dramatic but I succumbed to temptation when I bought the Interweave Press Felting magazine for $7.99. It has some dandy projects in it, by the way. All this money talk is vulgar, but although I shop the sales at the grocery store, I make an effort with coupons only about six times a year. I'm inordinately happy when I save this large a percentage on my bill.

I purchased a wireless fencing system for Little Frida. I am in the process of training her. It's only day two, but part of the program requires her to get zapped so she knows where the boundaries are. The manufacturer's literature glibly refers to the static electricity shock as "correction". All I know is that I feel simply awful about making her go through it. A wonderful pug we used to have was trained to use one and it really allowed him a lot of freedom. I just don't remember the training being so hard. I have a couple of crafty/thrifting items but I forgot my camera somewhere and couldn't take pictures tonight. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I laughed myself silly at this Dave Barry column which is about a certain procedure I had not too long ago.

June 29, 2008

I've done a little soul searching after my last estate sale bender wherein I actually purchased a dozen blown-out goose eggs. I have, for the past few weeks, not even looking for the listings in the paper. But yesterday I had a relapse. Here are some of the treasures I brought home:

Ooohhh! I've always wanted one of these. It still has the Kmart sticker on the bottom. It plays "Around the World in 80 Days". And my little tutu-ed friend is still twirling after all these years.

I had to bring this home. It's a sweet child's suitcase. The picture on the front is pristine. The papers which are on the back and inside the case have no relation to the image on the front in motif or color. It has a plastic handle. I'd say that it dates from the very early 1950's.

I'm always interested in vintage children's books. Sometimes it is the text and sometimes it is the pictures and, when I get lucky, it is both. Here's what i snagged:

Brian Wildsmith's ABC dates from 1962. I love the illustrations. The only words in the book are labels for the pictures once in lowercase, once in uppercase, i.e. owl, OWL. This should be a lot of fun to read aloud and discuss the pictures.

This book, with the self-explanitory title "Birds" was written by Jane Werner Watson and illustrated by one of my all-time favorites Eloise Wilkins. I like it because it gives good information on the backyard birds a child would typically see. This picture is great because it looks like the little girl is giving the gull communion.

This is a 1951 book by Richard Scarry (another all-time favorite) entitled "The Great Big Car and Truck Book". Dated in a charming way with milk trucks and coal delivery trucks. (I do know that strictly speaking book titles should be underlined, but I find it makes one think that it leads to a link. Hence the ill-used quote marks.)

Now... for my best buy of the weekend:

This is a swell rotary phone which is a pretty aqua blue. It still works, although I haven't heard the ring tone yet. It is so satisfying to dial a number with a rotary phone. I'll bet that to my kids, it looks as ancient as a candlestick-style phone looks to me. It set me back one Yankee dollar.

May 02, 2008

Estate sales season has arrived in Western New York. On my way home from work, I stopped at three different sales. If the selection at these homes is any gauge, it's going to be a great season.

My haul:

-A Christmas carillon with angels, shepherds, three kings and creche. And it spins! - A 1957 big book of questions and answers along with a paisley print knitting bag. - A regulator clock with a pretty chime with a ceramic Dutch shoe.

But wait, there's more!

Rug making supplies for braid, latch hook, punch hooking, regular rug hooking and something called "French Embroidery". - About 25 dishes in the "Swiss Chalet" pattern made in the 1960's as give-a-way premiums at gas stations.

But here's by far, the weirdest thing I've ever purchased at an estate sale:

That's right! a baker's dozen of goose and duck eggs with their contents removed. How I've lived without them for so long, I'll never know. As long as I was at it I picked up the machine which is used to mark the eggs into sections in order to have symmetrical decorations.

The lady to whom these items originally belonged had the hobby of creating elaborate scenes in eggs, like a Faberge-style egg.

April 10, 2008

There was an estate sale down the street. The home was filthy and disorganized. Pawing through the squalor, I was able to find a few treasures, a spelling book from 1941, an old silk stockings box and a piece of vintage floral print barkcloth. The picket fence is vintage - used to surround tabletop Christmas trees. The coolest thing was, by far, a set of president figurines. Way-back-when you could buy these figurines one at a time from the A&P grocery store. Each week there would be a new president to buy. When he was six or seven years old my brother Dan played with them every day. One night at dinner, he said, "Ask me who the 17th president was!" Someone asked, and Dan knew the answer. As it turned out he knew all the presidents. In order, out of order - didn't matter. He knew which ones had beards, what years they served and so on. I was really tickled to find the set.